This week on the podcast we're talking all about spying, lying, and boosting your powers of observation and deduction. We're also answering your questions about the quirks of Windows 8 laptops, getting better photo prints, and buying your smartphone contract-free.

News and Top Stories

iOS 6.1 Offers New Mini-Features and Map Fixes - iOS 6.1 has a few new features coming, one of which is an improvement to how you report errors in the Maps app. It's unfortunate that Apple's making its users fix their mistakes, but it's better than nothing. Also, Siri can now buy movie tickets for you.

Questions and Answers

Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.

I want to get a Nexus 4 without a service contract. How does that work? - If you already have service, you just buy the phone for your provider and activate it. If you don't have service, you'll probably need to take it to your provider's local store and have them help you set it up. Basically, it's not that much different than buying a new phone. You just get it separately and add it to your account through your provider. The bonus is, of course, that you don't have to renew any contracts and can more easily jump to a new carrier if you please.

How can I lock the screen orientation of my Windows 8 laptop?" - Press the Windows key and the O key (Win+O). That'll lock the screen orientation. (Source: TechRadar)

How can I fully integrate Google Voice with my iPhone and make calls using my cellular data plan via the Talkatone app? - You need the GV Extensions for iPhone to integrate your numbers. Forcing Talkatone to be the primary phone app is not possible, as far as we know. If anyone does know how to do this, please write in.

Why do my smartphone photos suck when I print them at Walgreens? - Because you're printing smartphone photos at Walgreens. :) Smartphone photos aren't great to begin with, but they look much better on your screen because the screen is optimized to display them. Any camera is like that, from a point and shoot to an expensive DSLR. Your images will almost always look better on the screen than they will anywhere else unless you put in the effort to get perfect prints. Thorin recommends going to a more professional photo printer like Wolf Camera. If you don't want to spend the money, you're really better off printing at home. It's about as cheap and you have full control over your images. You can adjust them and choose the print color space so they come out exactly how you like. Places like Walgreens and other inexpensive photo printers don't have professional operators and the service is likely automated (for the most part). You're just not going to get great prints there, so use something like Wolf Camera or Nations Photo Lab (which can provide corrections for you) or just print them yourself.

I want to upgrade to Windows 8 but I need 20GB of space that I don't have. What can I do? - Before you do anything, one important thing to note is that Windows 8 doesn't actually require 20GB of space. It just needs that space to store some files during the installation. Basically, you just need to dump 20GB of data onto another drive temporarily and you can move it back when you're done. Whitson found that he was able to get rid of 20GB just by deleted iPhone backups. Where your hefty data comes from will vary, but use an app like (our favorite) WinDirStat to find out what's eating up your hard drive.

How Do I Submit a Question?

Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!